G. E. PALMER AS HE WAS 



in knowing everything, yet at the same time can be 

 very gulHble. 



There was a very fine amateur runner there, 

 Pritchard, who was in the Queensland Bank, a most 

 beautifully made athlete, but George Bonnor, the 

 cricketer, managed to give him three yards in a hun- 

 dred and beat him. Arthur Forbes, who came over 

 to London after for the same bank, looked after the 

 big cricket fixtures. His brother, Duncan Forbes, was 

 dotty about cricket. He came round and asked me 

 if he could do the cricket article in my paper. As he 

 said he would do it for nothing, there was a ready 

 assent, and it was delightful stuff, but thoroughly mad. 

 He couldn't allude to Palmer as Palmer, but had to 

 preface his man's name with a glorifying adjectivcj 

 and then give his full name. Palmer, who was one of 

 the best bowlers who ever played for Australia, had 

 just done something big, and the copy read : " Magnifi- 

 cent George Eugene Palmer, you have shown them, 

 superb George Eugene, how you can Palmerise the 

 defence, etc., etc." The fun was to put it in just as 

 it was written. 



The Era went on for many weeks, I may say im- 

 proving all the time, but finances ran low and there 

 was a bill at the printers. I hustled round, and at last 

 induced a dear old financier to give it a leg up with 

 three hundred pounds, and it is astonishing how far 

 this went. But then again came a time of difficulty, 

 and I owed the printers about two hundred and fifty 

 pounds, a lot of money considering the circulation was 

 only five thousand — at threepence, mind you. One 

 day, as I failed to weigh in, they said they must really 

 stop. The three of them lined up and gave me the 

 ultimatum. I saw they were in earnest, and a ready 

 " bright " struck me and I said : " Don't miss your 



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